Jim FisherSigma sd Quattro HLandscape photographers may fall in love with the Sigma sd Quattro H, which delivers image quality on par with medium format systems for much less money, though it's not as versatile as mainstream cameras.

Poor high ISO images. Slow start and autofocus. EVF could be better. Omits video and Wi-Fi.

Bottom Line

Landscape photographers may fall in love with the Sigma sd Quattro H, which delivers image quality on par with medium format systems for much less money, though it's not as versatile as mainstream cameras.

Sigma's Foveon sensor technology has long delivered image quality that blows away mainstream cameras—at least at low ISOs. But poor image quality when the ISO is pushed to moderate levels, and a cumbersome Raw workflow tied to proprietary software made them a tough sell. The latest model, the Sigma sd Quattro H ($1,199, body only), solves one issue by introducing DNG capture, so you can work with Raw images in Lightroom CC and Photoshop without conversion, but still struggles at high ISO settings. For the right photographer, the sd Quattro H is a very appealing camera, but it's a specialized tool and no threat to our favorite high-end mirrorless pick, the Fujifilm X-T2.

Design

The Quattro H is an odd-looking camera. It's mirrorless, but it uses an SLR lens mount that protrudes from the body, which is a bit thick and blocky compared with its competitors. The handgrip is fairly deep, so it's comfortable to hold, and the bottom of the grip is higher than the rest of the body, so the H has a bit of a wavy appearance if viewed from the front or rear. It supports the same SA lenses as Sigma SLRs, including the aging SD1 Merrill.

If you want a traditional flat bottom, you can get the $250 PG-41 Power Grip. It connects to the camera and adds shooting controls for use when holding the Quattro in portrait orientation, as well as two additional batteries. You'll need to buy these separately, and they're $75 each, so adding the grip and fully loading it with additional power is a $400 proposition.

Without the grip or a lens, the Quattro measures 3.7 by 5.8 by 3.6 inches (HWD) and weighs about 1.6 pounds. It's larger and heavier than the X-T2, which is 3.6 by 5.2 by 1.9 inches and weighs 1.1 pounds. The Quattro is only available in black. Its exterior is mostly metal, with a few plastic elements (including the memory card door) and a rubberized coating on the handgrip and rear thumb rest.

Aside from the lens release button, the front is devoid of controls. The On/Off switch is curiously placed at an angle atop the lens mount barrel. The top plate houses the hot shoe, EVF diopter control, front and rear control dials, the shutter release, a Lock switch, and the QS (Quick Shift) button.

The Quick Shift system is Sigma's take on the on-screen overlay menu that we see in so many cameras. By default it provides quick access to the Drive mode, White Balance, Tone Control, Focus Peaking, Image Quality, Image Size, Aspect Ratio, and Color mode. But you can change what functions are included in the menu to best shoot your shooting style.

Rear controls include a Display button that changes the amount of information shown on the rear screen or EVF, as well as a toggle switch to set the Live View feed to show on the EVF, the rear display, or switch automatically using the Quattro's eye sensor. Below the LCD are Play and S/C (Single/Continuous AF select) buttons.

A strip of buttons runs along the right of the secondary LCD—a light bulb icon turns it on or off, and for photography control there's EV, ISO, Metering, and Mode. On the far rear you get an AF/AEL button and toggle switch (nestled into the thumb rest), a four-way directional pad with center select button, Menu, and a focus point select button.

Some of the controls are atypical—using a button to select shooting mode rather than a dial shows that Sigma expects photographers to have some time to change modes, which is likely the case for a camera built for slow, deliberate image capture. And the AFL/AEL toggle makes it possible to lock either or both for a shot without diving into settings to change its function. Most cameras with toggle switches make you choose one or the other per shot.

I'm used to shooting with different camera systems in single outings, but I'll be the first to admit that I was scrambling to find certain features on the Quattro's body, only to discover them where I least expected, when working with it in the field. With more regular use I'm sure I'd be more comfortable with the location of the different buttons, and customizing the QS menu was a big help for me.

Many pro SLRs have secondary LCDs that show exposure information, but they're universally located on the top plate. The Quattro H puts it on the rear, to the right of the main LCD. It's here you can see the number of shots remaining on your memory card and in the burst shooting buffer, exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and the metering pattern), and the shooting mode. It's monochrome, information is shown in easy-to-read bright white lettering, and viewing angles are excellent.

To its left is the 3-inch, 1.62-million-dot LCD that shows the live view feed and overlay information—including a framing grid and digital level if desired. It's a really solid LCD, showing scenes in crisp detail. It's not a touch screen, which is a shame as tap-to-focus would have worked really well with this type of camera. It's also fixed, which is more of a letdown to me. The Quattro is adept at capturing landscapes and is going to appeal to photographers who regularly work on a tripod. If you want to take a shot from a very low angle, prepare to get down on your hands and knees to frame it.

You can also frame shots in the EVF. I've got no complaints about its size or sharpness—its 0.84x magnification rating means that it's one of the biggest you'll find in a mirrorless camera, and 2.36 million dots make it plenty sharp. But it's not the smoothest EVF I've used, delivering images to your eye that aren't perfectly smooth and lag a bit, much like the medium format Hasselblad X1D-50c. It also has a slightly warm, yellowish tint, which you don't get with the rear LCD. I'm glad it's there for those times when you're dealing with too much sun for even the bright rear LCD to punch through, or when setting up a shot that's best taken from eye level, but I found myself using the rear LCD more often because of the EVF's shortcomings.

When you remove the lens you'll notice that there's a reflective red filter between the mount and sensor. It prevents invisible light on the infrared wavelength from making its way to the imager. It's removable, and if you do remove it you can turn the Quattro H into an infrared camera. You'll need to invest in a filter to block visible light, but it's an affordable way to get into infrared photography—most cameras have to be specially modified by a third party for IR imaging.

The memory card door is on the right side and supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards. The battery is housed nearby, accessible via a door on the bottom plate. On the left side you'll find three rubber flaps that cover the remote control, micro USB 3.0, and mini HDMI ports. There's no wireless connectivity, nor is there a microphone input—the Quattro doesn't record video.

Sigma doesn't publish the standard CIPA rating for battery life. But like other cameras that use a Quattro sensor, it's fairly power hungry. A second battery is a good idea for all-day excursions.

Performance

Don't expect the Quattro to rattle off shots like the Fujifilm X-T2 or Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. It's a camera for the patient. It requires 5.4 seconds to start, focus, and fire. And even if the camera is powered on and ready go, expect to wait a full second for the focus to lock.

Burst shooting is available at a decent 4.3 frames per second, but it's very limited in duration. You only get eight shots before the buffer is completely full, and once you've stopped shooting it takes about 50 seconds for those eight images to commit to memory, even when using a SanDisk SDXC card rated at 280MBps. You can start shooting again after the buffer is partially clear, thankfully, but that'll still keep you out of action for about six seconds.

Huge file sizes play a part in the write time. DNG shots are about 150MB each, and X3F Raw files clock in at 73MB on average. JPGs are more reasonable, between 15 and 20MB for standard resolution (25.6MP) images, but if you opt to save them at the upscaled 51.2MP size they balloon to about 40MB.

Image Quality

But you probably aren't buying this camera to shoot JPG, unless it's out of sheer convenience. The Sigma Raw workflow has long been a hurdle I've had trouble clearing for one simple reason—the proprietary Sigma Photo Pro software is pretty terrible. It's improved over the years—you can now batch convert X3F Raw images to TIFF format for use in Lightroom without the software crashing—but that time-consuming process is rendered unnecessary here. The Quattro H shoots in DNG, Adobe's standard format. You lose some versatility by opting for DNG capture—adjustments to individual color layers can't be made in the same way as an X3F file—but you gain convenience.

The image sensor is an APS-H format, and measures 18.6 by 27.9mm—to approximate the full-frame equivalent field of view a lens will deliver, multiply its focal length by 1.3. The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM Art lens I used along with the Quattro H is a standard angle, matching a 45mm lens on a 135 format sensor. If you own a Sigma lens that covers an APS-C image circle it can be used on the SD Quattro H; photos are cropped automatically to match the smaller sensor size.

It's a Foveon design—if you're not familiar with the technology, you can read more about it at our sister site, ExtremeTech. The Quattro sensor maintains the three-layer design of earlier Foveon imagers, but packs four times as many pixels into the top blue-sensitive layer than it does in the green or red layers below it. If you shoot in the X3F or DNG Raw format the net result are 25MP images, but because there's no need to interpolate data from missing pixels, detail is on the same level as a 50MP Bayer image.

Lab tests back up the claims. Examining Raw photos at 2:1 magnification shows that detail is on par with 50MP cameras we've tested, including the medium format Hasselblad X1D and Canon EOS 5DS R, both of which are far more expensive than the Quattro H. I've included crops from all of the Quattro H's shooting modes—25MP Raw, DNG, and JPG, as well as 51MP Super High JPG—in the slideshow that accompanies this review.

Where the Foveon design falls short of Bayer is at higher ISOs. The Quattro H keeps noise under 1.5 percent at ISO 100 only. It increases to 1.8 percent at ISO 200 and 2.3 percent at ISO 400, which is as far as I recommend pushing the camera. Detail remains strong at ISO 800, but color saturation starts to suffer, delivering images that are muted in tone. You lose a significant amount of detail at ISO 1600, and it only gets worse at ISO 3200 and 6400. Additionally, you'll have to deal with a lot of blotchy noise and color shift beyond ISO 1600.

Conclusions

There's no quarreling with the incredible image quality that the Sigma sd Quattro H can shoot. For the price, you won't find another camera that delivers as much resolution for the price. If you do landscape, studio, or other types of fine art photography where capturing fast-moving action and shooting at high ISOs isn't a requirement, you'll find the results to be stellar. We don't slight the Quattro for its niche toolset—it does what it intends to exceedingly well. It's also backed by a pretty fantastic lens system. Sigma's recent offerings in its Art series have been excellent performers all-around, and priced aggressively compared with alternatives from Canon and Nikon. But there are some downsides. Even if you're not shooting action, the camera's slow responsiveness can be a little frustrating, and the EVF is disappointing.

If you're a longtime Foveon devotee, or simply intrigued by the image quality that Sigma's unique sensor system, know that the Quattro H is a solid choice if you want an interchangeable lens camera. It's easy to integrate into your post-production workflow thanks to its support for DNG capture—at this time it's the only Sigma camera to support DNG—and it has the largest, highest resolution Foveon sensor to date. It all adds up to what can be the perfect camera for the right photographer.

Sigma sd Quattro H

Bottom Line: Landscape photographers may fall in love with the Sigma sd Quattro H, which delivers image quality on par with medium format systems for much less money, though it's not as versatile as mainstream cameras.

Read More

About the Author

Senior digital camera analyst for the PCMag consumer electronics reviews team, Jim Fisher is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he concentrated on documentary video production. Jim's interest in photography really took off when he borrowed his father's Hasselblad 500C and light meter in 2007. He honed his writing skills at re... See Full Bio

Sigma sd Quattro H

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.